Posted on by Itumeleng

Twitter and conferences: things to consider

As the winter FINALLY loosens its grip in the Northern hemisphere (sorry for you, poor Southerners…), I welcome the warm weather and start planning my conference season. Attending conferences is an integral part of the graduate school experience, and with this honour comes great responsibility. As with many aspects of modern living, the use of social media apps like Twitter at conferences has increased dramatically in the past few years and these have provided the chance to interact more frequently with other scientists. As an avid Twitter user, I have found it very useful to stay connected and informed about talks I couldn’t attend. But – and this is a big one – the use of Twitter at conferences is not without its controversy. Read here and here on discussions that highlight the concerns with live-tweeting at a conference. Another Twitter user (@online_academic) recently published a book on this very topic, “Twitter for Academics”. Here, I will try illustrating how I use Twitter at conferences and “Twitter-etiquette”[1].

Firstly, most conferences (if not all) will have a conference hashtag that twitter users use to discuss the conference; for instance, a recent conference I attended had the hashtag #ISME16. It’s important to always use this hashtag in all your conference tweets – this ensures that people following conference updates can see your comments/tweets.

More importantly, I find it useful to think before you tweet. In most cases, the work being presented at the conference is new and not yet published. I try to keep that in mind, and make the question/comments short (well, you only have 140 characters :-)). Besides, as scientists we are accustomed to writing concise sentences ;-). Clear and concise questions/comments always promote discussion and re-tweets (more re-tweets= a wider audience). Such comments tend to be effective, instead of simply stating obvious statements that do not engage your audience.

twit2

Where possible I try to make sure I tag the speaker or related people in the tweet. In an earlier conference (Society of Nematologist), I made such a comment and was well received.

twit3

Lastly, I use it to share great news that may be announced at the conference – for instance when South Africa won the bid to how ISME in 2020.

twit4

Now, dear reader, I do not want to leave you with one side of this story. There is a dark side to using Twitter at conferences. Personally, I tend to lose interest when people are tweeting every slide and giving a blow-by-blow account of the presentation instead of summarising the talk in a single tweet. AIso, I prefer not to tweet pictures of people looking sad/bored and more importantly I try to tweet pictures that promote equality/diversity ( I know most conference still have a disproportional male:female ratio of speakers) #Feminism #WomenofScience #WomenScienceDay. A recent blog post by renowned communication specialist of UNDP Mehmet Erdogan (@mehmeterdoganIV) explores these ideas further — it’s worth a read.

So, you see dear reader, we ought not be afraid to engage and use social media at conferences.I hope this blog encourages you to engage more and not be intimidated by using social media at conferences. It was through Twitter that I was able meet some of my collaborators. Remember that Twitter is just a tool we use to interact with other scientists, but it cannot replace face-to-face interactions. So, next time you are at a conference think of a person you might want to meet and check if they are on Twitter. Use this platform and ask yourself how could I use it to meet people in same field? Have I met or identified anyone who could be a possible collaborator? Once all these questions have been answered, the next step is how to approach/form collaboration with people you meet – but I will leave that for another blog.

met at conference (1)

P.S…In this picture, I met my science hero (Charles Greer of McGill Univerity) at a recent conference ( I had been following his updates on Twitter) and Angel Valverde (University of Pretoria) brilliantly photo-bombing us 🙂

 

 

[1] Personal accounts on what worked and what did not.

Posted on by SAYAS · 1 Comment

Writing your first paper: start with the basics

By Karen J. Cloetekaren

iThemba Laboratory for Accelerator Based Sciences, National Research Foundation, kcloete[at]tlabs.ac.za; kaboutercloete[at]gmail.com

One of the most important outputs in a researcher’s career is the number of publications in high impact, international peer-reviewed journals. Getting published leads to promotions, the development of new ideas, sometimes instigates new collaborations, and – importantly – advances the scientific field. If your work is not published, you may as well never have done the research. However, writing a research paper is often an anxiety-provoking and daunting task, so that many important research findings never reach the print stage.

The most important barrier to writing is the lack of writing skills, which are often not taught at undergraduate or postgraduate level. So what do you do if you, as a young researcher, also never received this vital training?

Improve your writing skills: Don’t do it alone.

Before taking on a first big writing assignment, ask for guidance and advice from colleagues, co-authors, mentors, or supervisors. Supervisors often offer invaluable advice when it comes to writing papers at the masters or doctoral level. Even colleagues from other fields will be able to help you develop your paper, as an “outsider” not deeply involved in the study can easily spot where your writing and ideas are unclear.  However, beware of submitting a lengthy piece of badly written work to another busy researcher – rather submit a small piece of writing (like the introduction) for thorough review and comment.

Another approach to improve your writing skills is by joining a writing group. Just beware: transforming writing into a social activity may only be suited for those with a certain personality type. In such writing groups, draft versions of your paper may be disseminated among the group members for comment and discussion. Some universities may also offer a tutoring service for writing in which experienced students tutor or mentor inexperienced students in drafting a dissertation or first paper for publication. Offering your skills in such a way may be an invaluable learning experience for reviewing your own work.

It is also important to be exposed to diverse opportunities for learning and publishing research. This should be done early in the research career. Attend as many writing workshops as possible, covering different topics related to the writing and publishing of research. Even if you think you know how to write, you will always gain new ideas from good workshops or tutorials.

Work a bit differently.

Technology can also help. Software tools and resources for academic writing may be an invaluable resource in assisting with the writing process. I have listed a few useful tools below:

Mindnode

Software tool develop for structuring ideas when brainstorming

Freemind

Free software tool to assist with mind-mapping

Rationale

Software developed for argument mapping that enables the structure of an argument to be displayed graphically

LaTeX and LyX 

Software developed to serve as document preparation tools

Research Writer by ActiveScholar

A writing tool developed for academic writing enabling you to capture, maintain, and organize research information

Docear-The Academic Literature Suite

An open source tool that assists you in organizing, creating and discovering academic literature

Mendeley

A free bibliography and academic social networking tool

After you have honed your writing skills, you can use your time more efficiently when writing up a paper. It will also become easier to publish good papers, have successful grant applications, and enable you to become a good reviewer or editor of a journal. Most importantly, being a good writer will generate respect from your peers.

 

“Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.”

– Benjamin Franklin